About Me

Experience Summary

Sometimes you need the best. Whether it’s for you or your kid, I’m here to help you turbocharge your learning. I take great pride in my work and in delivering you nothing but the best results. I do this by structuring engaging, personally tailored lessons that help utilize your strengths to cover any holes in your knowledge, and in allowing you to reach your full potential. I bring a deep knowledge of the subjects at hand and make the process engaging and, dare I say, even fun!
Back in middle school, I ended up helping my peers with nearly every subject (In Russia, copying other people’s work is an unfortunate legacy of communism. I had LONG lines of people wanting to see mine!). When I finished high school with all A+’s (I kid you not!) I moved from a village in a remote corner of Russia to by far the best college in the country (Moscow State University), which was quite an adjustment. It’s given me the ability to empathize both with those who are reaching for the stars and those who are struggling to pass. I was honored to receive President’s Award for Excellence and graduated as valedictorian. I merged my interests in Math, Science, and Language through majoring in Computational Linguistics and minoring in Literature.
I started tutoring in college and became a full-time tutor upon graduation; as it’s my full-time occupation, I can be both flexible and reliable. Your emergency is my emergency! I’ve tutored everything from test-prep and geometry to Latin and history (and have even taught yoga as well!) to students from 8 to 58. On the language front, I’ve taught languages both living (Russian, English, French, Spanish) and dead (Latin, Ancient Greek, and Old Church Slavonic). Having become a fluent non-native speaker of English, I understand what it’s like to learn a language.
I’ve taught ESL and prepared students for the TOEFL, IELTS, and interviews in English - both one-on-one and in groups - for over 4 years. When I took TOEFL I nailed a 99%. Beyond this, I’ve taught English in the Mathematics Department of Moscow State University and, in order to give back to the community, currently, volunteer at the LA Public Library Singleton Center as an English Teacher.
In teaching math, I love bringing the subject to life. The problems are like rock climbing - where you need to boil it down to the best way to its essence and attack the heart of it. I’m good both at tying the concepts to real life, and at helping students utilize their unique insights to solve them in an efficient way that makes sense to them. I’ve found this truly helps people, particularly those for whom math is far from a favorite subject, to grasp it quickly and efficiently, resulting in serious grade improvement.
I tailor my tutoring sessions to match each student’s needs, style and pace. My students find my enthusiasm for learning contagious, my feedback helpful, and my teaching methods effective. In so doing, your grades improve, as does their understanding.
Can’t wait to meet you!